The invention relates to a detachable chair-lift having an aerial rope with continuous running, which extends between two stations where the rope passes over bull-wheels to form an endless loop, and chairs coupled to the rope on the line and uncoupled from the rope in the stations to run continuously over a trajectory transferring the chairs from one strand of the loop to the other passing pickup spots to pick up skiers.
The invention is described hereinafter in its preferred application to a detachable chair-lift, and more particularly to a loading station generally situated downhill, but it is clear that it is applicable to other transporters, notably to cable-cars.
The transport capacity is an essential factor of a chair-lift and it depends on the number of places on each chair and on the speed of and the distance between the chairs on the line. The development of detachable chair-lifts has enabled the speed on the line and therefore the throughput rate to be increased, while providing ease of pickup on chairs running at reduced speed. As the speed of the chairs in the stations is lower, the chairs are closer to one another than on the line, notably in the pickup zone, and at a high throughput rate, the larger the size of the chairs, with two, three or four seats, the more difficult it is for skiers to pass between two chairs close to one another.
The object of the present invention is to achieve a chair-lift with a high transport capacity and with loading in complete safety.
The document U.S. Pat No. 4,050,385 describes a detachable chair-lift, whose transfer trajectory of the chairs is doubled into two parallel tracks, each having a pickup spot. The chairs are directed alternately onto one or the other of the tracks so as to increase the throughput rate of the installation. The two tracks cross and the pickup spots are arranged on the outside sections of the tracks. The skiers are seated perpendicularly to the line and they get on the chairs, at a standstill, from the rear, without crossing the trajectory of the chairs or one of the tracks. Loading at a standstill reduces the running rate of the chair-lift and, at the crossing of the two tracks, one of the chairs is loaded and the slightest misadjustment may cause an accident with injury.
The document EP-A-0,306,771 describes a parking track of a detachable chair-lift, on which the chairs are stored at a small distance from one another.